Instagram recently killed Direct, its standalone messaging app and now launched Threads to replace it but now with a focus on your close friends, a feature Instagram to connect you with your Instagram Clique. Threads is a camera-centric app that lets you stay connected to your close friends by messaging them and having a dedicated inbox and notifications just for them.
You can also share photos and videos on the app to your close friends among other features discussed here.
The app rolled out globally for both iOS and Android. The app got downloaded by estimated 220,000 Instagram users. This is a disappointing start for the app that got a lot of hype when compared to the over a billion users Instagram boasts which puts it at 0.1% of Instagram’s total number of Instagram’s monthly active users.
When compared to other standalone apps Instagram has launched such as Boomerang and IGTV, Threads is disappointing. On the first week of its October 2015 launch, Boomerang had 2.8 million downloads while IGTV launched in June 2018 had 1.5 million downloads in the first week.
Worth noting it could be that people are downloading the wrong app as there’s a workplace app with the same name that was built by Ex-Facebook developer Rousseau Kazi.
Download Threads from Instagram here.
